It seems now adays life goes by fairly fast. If you take a single wrong step you are suddenly behind with no hopes of catching up with the rest of society. I feel like I have taken 2 wrong steps in my life that have now caused me to be so far behind that I feel I just can't catch up.
My first misstep was in not continuing my dancing at a young age. When I was younger I convinced my mom to allow me to go to dance workshops and the such. I went to a couple of different dance things here and there, but I never continued. I think one of the main reasons may have been because it wasn't considered 'manly' but that also could just be a fabrication created by me by my later self. But in any essence this stopping in my dancing at a young age has caused me to be morbidly behind. I look at even 'beginning' male dancers and I notice that I shouldn't even begin to imagine catching up. Most of them have the flexibilty to bend over backwards and do the splits. They have also learned how to spot properly so that they can turn more than once without falling over. They have also obtained the strength necessary to lift people up as if they weight absolutely nothing. I on the other hand have none of these capabilities. I am not flexible enough to do most of the movement necessary, I cannot even do a single turn without falling flat on my face, and as for strength, let's just say most women without strength training can outdo me. And so due to this I feel hopelessly behind on the times. And the sad part is, I just don't have time to catch up. I will discuss this later though.
My second misstep took place with my other profession, mathematics. This misstep was even more greatly my fault. I went into university thinking that I was going to pursue physics. Because of this I made the mindless assumption that I would not need mathematics, and so I did not try to learn most of it thinking that it would not benefit me much. I ended up being drastically wrong when, now I find out, I turned to love mathematics. Since I was behind on my knowledge, I could not catch up to learn. Even as I learn new and interesting things in mathematics, I still feel like I do not know much about the field. As everyone else is able to write proofs, I can't even create simple ones. As everyone has help to get them through their courses, I only have myself, and again have no time to catch up and learn everything. Also it should be noted that most of the greatest mathematicians had their best works published and exalted by the age of 25. That leaves me with less than 4 years to come up with some brilliant form of mathematics if I were to want to keep my name in the history books. Again, I am hopelessly behind on the times.
Now there are also tons of different things I would like to do with my life. I want to sit and play video games and catch up on all those. I want to learn about computers and the hardware and catch up on that. I want to learn about web design and how it works and catch up on that. I also want to catch up on all the books people read and all the tv shows (star trek mainly) people used to watch and catch up on those. I have so much to catch up on, it's a wonder I slowly don't get there.
So what is this reason I don't catch up on everthing? One word... School. It is the first time in my life that I have felt that school is finally taking its toll on me. I feel like I am putting so much effort into getting good grades that I am not learning anything. Grades have become too much of an importance in the world. Should it not be the knowledge that we obtain rather than a grade? I feel like all I care about nowadays is a grade. And it's starting to impede on my acquisition of knowledge. I have to take 8 classes minnimum in order to continue education so that I can be a teacher. I have to write essays for education classes. Why do I need to write an essay in order to show knowledge and why do you have to put a certain number of words on it. If I want to explain a certain topic in less than 3,500 words then i should be allowed it. Does it matter if my words flow nicely on a piece of paper or not? I personally don't think so. I have gained the knowledge needed from the classroom and yet they ask me to reflect on it in such a stupid fasion. And in mathematics they ask for me to basically write a book on a subject matter. In math I understand most of it. In fact I wanted to do the workload for my math class, but it is mainly the stupid education essays I just do not want to write.
Unfortunately, I must wait until I am out of school until I can 'catch up' on everything. By that point I will be 23 and I will be too late to pursue anything in dance, and I will only have 2 years to catchup and exceed everyone else in mathematics. In essence I must accomplish the impossible. And so I will look to school and say thank you. Thank you for ruining my life.
Still behind on life thanks to school,
Aram the Garmo
Friday, December 14, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Birthdays
Well, today is the start of my 21st year here on planet earth. *does a little dance* So I guess it's time to think about life. First off, you should have seen me an hour ago. Wow was that a crazy experience. Let's just say I was finally able to let go of some very pent up emotions. Which is a good thing I guess.
Basically I am here today to ask a question. What is so special about birthdays? I mean we are born, and from that day our days our numbered. Sure it is a good thing to celebrate that you made it through another year of life, but is it just not the same as laughing at someone? By noticing I am 21 I am noticing the lack of accomplishment. I look around me and what do I see? I see a lack of knowledge and understanding. By this point in life I wanted to be able to understand mathematics at least. I wanted to be able to pick up a math textbook and actually be able to casually read it and follow it along, which I can't do. I wanted to be able to come up with proofs for theorems, and for this I still need help. I wanted to begin my study on philosophy and what makes up the world and for that I have only read one text. I wanted to be teaching children mathematics and already able to help them understand basic concepts, and I am still at least 2 years away from that goal. I feel like I have all these accomplishments waiting to happen but not enough time to do it, and I already feel behind.
By now most of my 'smart' colleagues have already watched all the episodes of star trek and have read all the star wars books. The stories they used to read in middle school I am just picking up. I have over 10 years of knowledge to catch up on, and thats just the beginning. I mean where do I go from here, and what more am I to accomplish? There are so many unanswered questions and I hoped that by now all of this would have been settled. I am already in the stage in my life where I am seriously considering having children. I don't know. I feel so mature and yet so behind.
What do you do when all you want to do in life is catch up with everyone around you just so that you can eventually get ahead and get somewhere?
That is why I don't like birthdays. It is another slap in the face telling you that you are still losing the war in knowledge. Maybe one day I will catch up. Maybe I will one day hopefully accomplish my one goal in life. Maybe... But for today, I just ask for more knowledge for my birthday.
Unknowingly yours,
Aram the Garmo
Basically I am here today to ask a question. What is so special about birthdays? I mean we are born, and from that day our days our numbered. Sure it is a good thing to celebrate that you made it through another year of life, but is it just not the same as laughing at someone? By noticing I am 21 I am noticing the lack of accomplishment. I look around me and what do I see? I see a lack of knowledge and understanding. By this point in life I wanted to be able to understand mathematics at least. I wanted to be able to pick up a math textbook and actually be able to casually read it and follow it along, which I can't do. I wanted to be able to come up with proofs for theorems, and for this I still need help. I wanted to begin my study on philosophy and what makes up the world and for that I have only read one text. I wanted to be teaching children mathematics and already able to help them understand basic concepts, and I am still at least 2 years away from that goal. I feel like I have all these accomplishments waiting to happen but not enough time to do it, and I already feel behind.
By now most of my 'smart' colleagues have already watched all the episodes of star trek and have read all the star wars books. The stories they used to read in middle school I am just picking up. I have over 10 years of knowledge to catch up on, and thats just the beginning. I mean where do I go from here, and what more am I to accomplish? There are so many unanswered questions and I hoped that by now all of this would have been settled. I am already in the stage in my life where I am seriously considering having children. I don't know. I feel so mature and yet so behind.
What do you do when all you want to do in life is catch up with everyone around you just so that you can eventually get ahead and get somewhere?
That is why I don't like birthdays. It is another slap in the face telling you that you are still losing the war in knowledge. Maybe one day I will catch up. Maybe I will one day hopefully accomplish my one goal in life. Maybe... But for today, I just ask for more knowledge for my birthday.
Unknowingly yours,
Aram the Garmo
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Friendships
What is a friendship? In the most closeness of the word. I think a friend is a person who stays by you and helps you in a time of need and someone you are willing to do the same for. Someone who you can freely talk with without fear of them thinking badly of you, and the recipricol. But what happens when friendship gets torn? What happens when a friendship gets cut in such a way that two pieces of the originally same string are held by only one point.
Which side of the angle would you lie on if your line got bent and your rays are now pointing in different directions, no longer pointing the same way? What ray would you follow?
Would you follow the ray who will bring you strength and will be there until the end, but will also keep you in a state which you wish to move out of. That friend which will cause you to think about life and challenge you to be the best you can be and to force you to work until the sun has risen yet again. Will you choose the side where money is spent and corrupts, but helps you feel good. Where decisions take time and options are considered. Where new experiences lie and the path you want is laid. The side which takes you away from the rest of humanity and will cause you to drift into solitary confinement, but will also make you become who you want and learn the languages needed to be the person you need to feel fulfilled.
Or would you choose the side where fashion lies. Where the outside determines your inside. Where gossip spreads like wildfire and fuels your life waiting for another day. Would you go toward the side where frugality is considered a good thing and a walk to save money is not considered negative. Would you walk on the side where popular tv shows rule and pub quizes determine life. Would you choose the side where alcohol is prevalent and all the problems of life are drowned slowly in order to make it all seem better.
Which side would you choose? I have chosen mine for it is my dream that I must follow. And so I say goodbye to the world. If you never see me again, it is this that has occured. Aram is following his dreams, pursuing his paths, seeking the knowledge which he needs to know. As Socrates has said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing" and saying, "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." And so I rest my day in pursuance to be the next known person in history. To have my name etched in stone next to Euclid, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Newton, Fermat, and so many other fabulous people such that I only hope to accomplish 1 tenth in my lifetime what they did in 1 year.
Regretfully yours,
Aram the Garmo
Which side of the angle would you lie on if your line got bent and your rays are now pointing in different directions, no longer pointing the same way? What ray would you follow?
Would you follow the ray who will bring you strength and will be there until the end, but will also keep you in a state which you wish to move out of. That friend which will cause you to think about life and challenge you to be the best you can be and to force you to work until the sun has risen yet again. Will you choose the side where money is spent and corrupts, but helps you feel good. Where decisions take time and options are considered. Where new experiences lie and the path you want is laid. The side which takes you away from the rest of humanity and will cause you to drift into solitary confinement, but will also make you become who you want and learn the languages needed to be the person you need to feel fulfilled.
Or would you choose the side where fashion lies. Where the outside determines your inside. Where gossip spreads like wildfire and fuels your life waiting for another day. Would you go toward the side where frugality is considered a good thing and a walk to save money is not considered negative. Would you walk on the side where popular tv shows rule and pub quizes determine life. Would you choose the side where alcohol is prevalent and all the problems of life are drowned slowly in order to make it all seem better.
Which side would you choose? I have chosen mine for it is my dream that I must follow. And so I say goodbye to the world. If you never see me again, it is this that has occured. Aram is following his dreams, pursuing his paths, seeking the knowledge which he needs to know. As Socrates has said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing" and saying, "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." And so I rest my day in pursuance to be the next known person in history. To have my name etched in stone next to Euclid, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Newton, Fermat, and so many other fabulous people such that I only hope to accomplish 1 tenth in my lifetime what they did in 1 year.
Regretfully yours,
Aram the Garmo
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Teaching Credential Dilema
So I can't get to work for the life of me so instead I am writing a dilema that I am in.
As of right now I have 3 main options as to what to do with my life in order to become a teacher. The issue is, I don't know which one of the three is the best one for me to take. Some I am being forced not to take, due to the fact of me not knowing what to do, while others I don't want to take, but may need to.
1) Go straight into teaching. This of course is the simplest one to explain. I personally would not mind this idea and seems to be the most prominent one that I have. This is difficult for me because this means that I would need to find a school in the UK that is willing to hire me, in an area that I like. This is difficult because I don't know the UK very well, like my English counterparts do. I don't know that essex is not going to be the best place to teach. I don't know where are nice areas to live, and I don't really have the money to go and see other places in order to make my decision. The hiring part cannot be too difficult due to the fact that they are looking for maths teachers, but I wonder if I will get paid less if I am not qualified. I could also take this option until I can afford to go and get my qualification, or find a way to qualify myself during the nights. Those are options here.
2) Go to a PGCE programme here in the UK and get qualified. In order to do this I unfortunately need money though. I would need to pay the 9,000 GBP tuition that is required in order to go there. This is not including the rent and food and everything. Basically, I would go into crazy amounts of debt in order to achieve this. There is a slight possibility that I may get a grant/scholarship since I am trying to be a teacher, but the chances are slim since I'm international. Like this I could study in Leeds, but again would not be able to look around and see where would be the best places to live and such. During this time I will also have to get a job so I am not completely broke, and will also mean I have to start paying back my loans to the states, which is extra debt in the UK.
3) Go into a Teacher Credentialling programme in the states. There is a problem with this one also. Since I am over here it is difficult for me to get my hands on the information needed to get into grad school. I need 3 letters of recommendation, and also I apparently need to take the GRE. Being in England makes it difficult to take the GRE. The next one is actually on the 3rd of November, but I am too late to sign up for that one. The one after that is in April, which would be too late for Grad school applications. Also, in order to get the CSET exemption I would need to get into grad school this coming year, or else I need to take the CSET, which is a $210 exam which you are almost guaranteed to fail the first time, and there are almost no study guides out there to help you pass it. So I could wait a year and do it then.
Now most of this sounds almost impossible, but there is a plan to make numbers 2 and 3 much more reasonable and doable. If I were to take a gap year next year and just do work for a whole year, I could potentially save up to $7,000 in one year. (This is assuming a $40,000 a year job with expenses as follows: $1,000 rent a month, $300 a month for food, $500 a month for personal expenses, $1,000 per month for loan repayment). So after one year the $7,000 would be more than enough to finance my next year at a UC school. I would also have all of that year to take and retake the CSET exam until I pass it. I could also end up taking that $7,000 and go and study in England. The money would pay off my housing, and I could easily get loans and such to afford my tuition (Assuming I get no scholarships).
So that is my dilema basically. Do I take a chance and try and turn in an application for UC Davis grad school, do I take a year off and work to save money, or do I go straight into teaching without knowing anything?
[Note: $40,000 a year was based off the fact of: $20/hour income working 40 hours per week. This may not seem doable, but remember I would be willing to take up 2 or 3 jobs in order to make the 40,000 a year. I could also end up working for agilent for a year and make a salary. I could also be an accountant for a year and make money that way. I could also decrease spending by living at my parents house during this time (even though I don't think they would want me to live there, and it would also take away my californian status).]
So the battle has begun. Which crazy scenario will Aram pick?
Confuzzled beyond belief,
Aram the Garmo
As of right now I have 3 main options as to what to do with my life in order to become a teacher. The issue is, I don't know which one of the three is the best one for me to take. Some I am being forced not to take, due to the fact of me not knowing what to do, while others I don't want to take, but may need to.
1) Go straight into teaching. This of course is the simplest one to explain. I personally would not mind this idea and seems to be the most prominent one that I have. This is difficult for me because this means that I would need to find a school in the UK that is willing to hire me, in an area that I like. This is difficult because I don't know the UK very well, like my English counterparts do. I don't know that essex is not going to be the best place to teach. I don't know where are nice areas to live, and I don't really have the money to go and see other places in order to make my decision. The hiring part cannot be too difficult due to the fact that they are looking for maths teachers, but I wonder if I will get paid less if I am not qualified. I could also take this option until I can afford to go and get my qualification, or find a way to qualify myself during the nights. Those are options here.
2) Go to a PGCE programme here in the UK and get qualified. In order to do this I unfortunately need money though. I would need to pay the 9,000 GBP tuition that is required in order to go there. This is not including the rent and food and everything. Basically, I would go into crazy amounts of debt in order to achieve this. There is a slight possibility that I may get a grant/scholarship since I am trying to be a teacher, but the chances are slim since I'm international. Like this I could study in Leeds, but again would not be able to look around and see where would be the best places to live and such. During this time I will also have to get a job so I am not completely broke, and will also mean I have to start paying back my loans to the states, which is extra debt in the UK.
3) Go into a Teacher Credentialling programme in the states. There is a problem with this one also. Since I am over here it is difficult for me to get my hands on the information needed to get into grad school. I need 3 letters of recommendation, and also I apparently need to take the GRE. Being in England makes it difficult to take the GRE. The next one is actually on the 3rd of November, but I am too late to sign up for that one. The one after that is in April, which would be too late for Grad school applications. Also, in order to get the CSET exemption I would need to get into grad school this coming year, or else I need to take the CSET, which is a $210 exam which you are almost guaranteed to fail the first time, and there are almost no study guides out there to help you pass it. So I could wait a year and do it then.
Now most of this sounds almost impossible, but there is a plan to make numbers 2 and 3 much more reasonable and doable. If I were to take a gap year next year and just do work for a whole year, I could potentially save up to $7,000 in one year. (This is assuming a $40,000 a year job with expenses as follows: $1,000 rent a month, $300 a month for food, $500 a month for personal expenses, $1,000 per month for loan repayment). So after one year the $7,000 would be more than enough to finance my next year at a UC school. I would also have all of that year to take and retake the CSET exam until I pass it. I could also end up taking that $7,000 and go and study in England. The money would pay off my housing, and I could easily get loans and such to afford my tuition (Assuming I get no scholarships).
So that is my dilema basically. Do I take a chance and try and turn in an application for UC Davis grad school, do I take a year off and work to save money, or do I go straight into teaching without knowing anything?
[Note: $40,000 a year was based off the fact of: $20/hour income working 40 hours per week. This may not seem doable, but remember I would be willing to take up 2 or 3 jobs in order to make the 40,000 a year. I could also end up working for agilent for a year and make a salary. I could also be an accountant for a year and make money that way. I could also decrease spending by living at my parents house during this time (even though I don't think they would want me to live there, and it would also take away my californian status).]
So the battle has begun. Which crazy scenario will Aram pick?
Confuzzled beyond belief,
Aram the Garmo
Friday, October 19, 2007
What would you do for your family?
As I move further away I only notice one huge thing, my family. For some reason I always comprimise my family for my wants. I do what I want and let my family fend for themselves in essence.
I firts noticed this in middle school when I was given an option, stay home with friends or go up north with relatives. Basically it was a weekend a long time ago where I was given the choice of staying home so that I can go bowling with Dan on Sunday, or I could ride up north to San Jose to go to my "cousin's" graduation party. I of course, stupidly, chose to stay at home with my friends. When my parents got back they showed me the wonderful time they had and I regretted it. I had chosen friends over family, and that is not how I wanted it to be.
Yet again though I am doing another faulty line and I had to travel all the way to England to realise it. I am choosing myself over family. Yes, in an American world that is completely ok and is normal. It is the I culture. But, like I tell everyone else, I am not American, I am Armenian and I do not like being a part of the I culture. That is in essence sort of why I left. I was trying to find somewhere where it wasn't all about the self. All about me me me. It wasn't until I got here that I realised that I had fallen into the American trap. I was only thinking about myself. I never thought about what this action would do to my family. I never intended to hurt my family in the process, yet that is all I have done.
I recently have realised what I am doing to my family. My mother is completely torn that I have left her. She can now barely walk and move around. She has to see a chiropracter once a week, and it's even gotten to the point where she is undergoing something called a ph treatement. It's something like her going in twice a week and having them do some treatement for her back so she doesn't feel pain anymore. And I seriously believe that it is due to me. Her life was ok before I left. She didn't have back problems, she was leading a normal and healthy life. All her problems began the day that I left. She also deeply misses me and wants me to come back home. She even says that she misses my "smily face." I mean how can you say no to that!
And then my brother is another person in need. Although we may always argue and fight I truly, deeply love him. And I may not say that to him very often, but I know he knows that, or at least I hope he does. And I also blame my leaving for his tragedies. He has no guidance in life. He doesn't know where to go or what to do. He has his mother and father both yelling at him to do certain things and they won't let him do the one thing he wants. He needs an older brother to stand up for him and help him, and I can't do that from far away. I have failed in helping my younger brother. I have failed in protecting him.
And so this brings me to once question, what can I do about all of this? Can I just drop everything I want and change my whole life for my family? Can I give up my dreams of living in Europe? Can I give up my dreams of being a teacher? Can I give up my rights as a citizen to go and live in a second rate country with a crappy political system? Can I change my job so quickly and adapt to a new lifestyle? Can I grow up so fast that everyone will think that I am 40? Can I be there for my family?
I hope my answer will be yes.
I am now seriously thinking about getting an accounting job that pays over 100k and moving to the states so that I can always see my mother and have the money to afford helping my brother. I don't know if I will end up doing this, but as of now, my plans for my future have changed.
What would you do for your family?
Signed,
Aram the Garmo
I firts noticed this in middle school when I was given an option, stay home with friends or go up north with relatives. Basically it was a weekend a long time ago where I was given the choice of staying home so that I can go bowling with Dan on Sunday, or I could ride up north to San Jose to go to my "cousin's" graduation party. I of course, stupidly, chose to stay at home with my friends. When my parents got back they showed me the wonderful time they had and I regretted it. I had chosen friends over family, and that is not how I wanted it to be.
Yet again though I am doing another faulty line and I had to travel all the way to England to realise it. I am choosing myself over family. Yes, in an American world that is completely ok and is normal. It is the I culture. But, like I tell everyone else, I am not American, I am Armenian and I do not like being a part of the I culture. That is in essence sort of why I left. I was trying to find somewhere where it wasn't all about the self. All about me me me. It wasn't until I got here that I realised that I had fallen into the American trap. I was only thinking about myself. I never thought about what this action would do to my family. I never intended to hurt my family in the process, yet that is all I have done.
I recently have realised what I am doing to my family. My mother is completely torn that I have left her. She can now barely walk and move around. She has to see a chiropracter once a week, and it's even gotten to the point where she is undergoing something called a ph treatement. It's something like her going in twice a week and having them do some treatement for her back so she doesn't feel pain anymore. And I seriously believe that it is due to me. Her life was ok before I left. She didn't have back problems, she was leading a normal and healthy life. All her problems began the day that I left. She also deeply misses me and wants me to come back home. She even says that she misses my "smily face." I mean how can you say no to that!
And then my brother is another person in need. Although we may always argue and fight I truly, deeply love him. And I may not say that to him very often, but I know he knows that, or at least I hope he does. And I also blame my leaving for his tragedies. He has no guidance in life. He doesn't know where to go or what to do. He has his mother and father both yelling at him to do certain things and they won't let him do the one thing he wants. He needs an older brother to stand up for him and help him, and I can't do that from far away. I have failed in helping my younger brother. I have failed in protecting him.
And so this brings me to once question, what can I do about all of this? Can I just drop everything I want and change my whole life for my family? Can I give up my dreams of living in Europe? Can I give up my dreams of being a teacher? Can I give up my rights as a citizen to go and live in a second rate country with a crappy political system? Can I change my job so quickly and adapt to a new lifestyle? Can I grow up so fast that everyone will think that I am 40? Can I be there for my family?
I hope my answer will be yes.
I am now seriously thinking about getting an accounting job that pays over 100k and moving to the states so that I can always see my mother and have the money to afford helping my brother. I don't know if I will end up doing this, but as of now, my plans for my future have changed.
What would you do for your family?
Signed,
Aram the Garmo
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Weather
Back for my second post of the evening! This topic will be about the weather so far in England.
A lot of people have this weird idea that the weather here in England is disgusting. There is this idea that it is always raining and just always depressing. I actually find the exact opposite. The weather here is so intriguing. You wake up in the morning and look at the weather forecast and then you trash the report you just read because it means absolutely nothing. A rainy day could mean 2 drops of rain, and a sunny day could mean the exact same thing. So since the weather is so unpredictable you always walk around with an umbrella just in case rain came in.
Another wonderful aspect about the weather is the clouds. In California the clouds almost didn't move. They stayed in place and created beautiful pictures in the sky. Over here the clouds move so fast it is amazing. It's as if the clouds have somewhere to go and they are in a rush to get there. I also like the way the clouds move. Since they are moving so fast it is an amazing site to see. One minute it is completely cloudy outside. Then you walk through a mall and by the time you walk to the other side the clouds have all disappeared and it is suddenly a hot sunny day. I find it amazing.
I will agree that it is pretty cold, but you get used to it. Within a couple of days I was used to the weather over here.
I think that is all about weather. Pictures are coming soon. I am waiting for a day that I am not dying and the weather outside turns out good AND I don't have classes in order to take pictures. So far I have pictures of my room. You can view them here:
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i143/crazyinsanoman/Clarence%20Dock%20-%20my%20room/
Freezing his bum off,
Aram the Garmo
A lot of people have this weird idea that the weather here in England is disgusting. There is this idea that it is always raining and just always depressing. I actually find the exact opposite. The weather here is so intriguing. You wake up in the morning and look at the weather forecast and then you trash the report you just read because it means absolutely nothing. A rainy day could mean 2 drops of rain, and a sunny day could mean the exact same thing. So since the weather is so unpredictable you always walk around with an umbrella just in case rain came in.
Another wonderful aspect about the weather is the clouds. In California the clouds almost didn't move. They stayed in place and created beautiful pictures in the sky. Over here the clouds move so fast it is amazing. It's as if the clouds have somewhere to go and they are in a rush to get there. I also like the way the clouds move. Since they are moving so fast it is an amazing site to see. One minute it is completely cloudy outside. Then you walk through a mall and by the time you walk to the other side the clouds have all disappeared and it is suddenly a hot sunny day. I find it amazing.
I will agree that it is pretty cold, but you get used to it. Within a couple of days I was used to the weather over here.
I think that is all about weather. Pictures are coming soon. I am waiting for a day that I am not dying and the weather outside turns out good AND I don't have classes in order to take pictures. So far I have pictures of my room. You can view them here:
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i143/crazyinsanoman/Clarence%20Dock%20-%20my%20room/
Freezing his bum off,
Aram the Garmo
Christmas
This is a first of a couple of posts that I should be making tonight. This one is going to be about my frustrations over my vacation planning.
So as it has been made aware, I was initially planning to have 3 different vacation schemes throughout the year in order to visit all the places I wished to go. During December I was going to travel Southern Europe. During March I was to travel the UK. During June I was going to travel Northern Europe. This was my initial plan, until travesty hit.
About a week ago I began realising that I had financial issues. I was running out of money, and fast. I needed to come up with a way to see how much I was allowed to spend. So I looked at my budget and calculated the amount of money I currently have and divided it up by 38 weeks. I had around $4,500 to spend for 38 weeks. This was around 2,250 GBP (The input area won't let me do the pound symbol). Which meant for around 59 GBP per week, which is really good. I could handle that, and then the big picture came in. When was I planning to travel, and to where, and how much was this going to cost. I needed to figure out my vacation plans.
It quickly became obvious that the money I had would not go far. I couldn't survive if I had 3 different vacations. I would be so poor they would end up kicking me out of the halls. So I thought hard about it and came up with a plan to do all of my Europe travels in June and go home for christmas time. In March I planned on just hanging around and not doing much, probably go to the library here and such.
I decided to travel in June because earlier my mom had been talking about how she wanted me home for christmas, and so I thought that like this I could go and visit her for christmas and do my vacationing plans.
So I sat and planned the places I wanted to go and around how much the cost would be if I were to go there. I first made a list of the places I wanted to go: Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Venice, Athens, Helsinki, Stockholm. Those were my 8 choices if I had to narrow it down. So then I calculated expected costs. 630 GBP for travelling, 300 GBP for food, 300 GBP for hostels. That ended up with a grand total of $2,500 for travelling just in June.
So then I took the $2,500 out of my finances, and looked at my new budget. I took 4 weeks out for christmas, and 4 weeks out for Europe, so my budget was only over 30 weeks now. This didn't help much because now my weekly income was a grand total of 33 GBP. And for anyone who isn't living in England, only having 33 GBP a week for food/mobile/laundry/and the occasional luxury, 33 doesn't even begin to cut it. But I knew I had to manage.
All of my plans have recently changed due to an idea my mom has had. She has now come to the conclusion that she doesn't want me to go home for christmas. She would much rather have me travel and would be willing to pay for my expenses for me to travel in Europe instead of going home. This is a curius idea since it was my step dad who asked her to do it. She is of course hurting since she hasn't seen me in forever and my stepdad thinks that she needs to learn to let go of me and let me live my life. So she is trying that by not seeing me.
Now this is tragic since I was very excited to go and see her over christmas. I really want to go to her for christmas and spend a little time with her. So now she wants me to go travelling instead and I don't know what to do. Do I go against her wishes and go and see her during christmas or do I just travel Europe without her? Yes it is a fact that most students are very excited to leave their families behind and never see them again, but I recently saw a TV show that has changed my mind. I was watching Queer as Folk (UK version) and saw how Nathan's mom was so hurt by Nathan leaving her and so I figured that is how my mom is feeling, and I suddenly felt horrible for leaving. Is it sad that I feel bad for following my own path because it hurts my mother?
So that is my current dillema, do I choose christmas with mother against her wishes, or do I go to europe and travel and by doing so not seeing my mom until June.
Inquisitively,
Aram the Garmo
So as it has been made aware, I was initially planning to have 3 different vacation schemes throughout the year in order to visit all the places I wished to go. During December I was going to travel Southern Europe. During March I was to travel the UK. During June I was going to travel Northern Europe. This was my initial plan, until travesty hit.
About a week ago I began realising that I had financial issues. I was running out of money, and fast. I needed to come up with a way to see how much I was allowed to spend. So I looked at my budget and calculated the amount of money I currently have and divided it up by 38 weeks. I had around $4,500 to spend for 38 weeks. This was around 2,250 GBP (The input area won't let me do the pound symbol). Which meant for around 59 GBP per week, which is really good. I could handle that, and then the big picture came in. When was I planning to travel, and to where, and how much was this going to cost. I needed to figure out my vacation plans.
It quickly became obvious that the money I had would not go far. I couldn't survive if I had 3 different vacations. I would be so poor they would end up kicking me out of the halls. So I thought hard about it and came up with a plan to do all of my Europe travels in June and go home for christmas time. In March I planned on just hanging around and not doing much, probably go to the library here and such.
I decided to travel in June because earlier my mom had been talking about how she wanted me home for christmas, and so I thought that like this I could go and visit her for christmas and do my vacationing plans.
So I sat and planned the places I wanted to go and around how much the cost would be if I were to go there. I first made a list of the places I wanted to go: Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Venice, Athens, Helsinki, Stockholm. Those were my 8 choices if I had to narrow it down. So then I calculated expected costs. 630 GBP for travelling, 300 GBP for food, 300 GBP for hostels. That ended up with a grand total of $2,500 for travelling just in June.
So then I took the $2,500 out of my finances, and looked at my new budget. I took 4 weeks out for christmas, and 4 weeks out for Europe, so my budget was only over 30 weeks now. This didn't help much because now my weekly income was a grand total of 33 GBP. And for anyone who isn't living in England, only having 33 GBP a week for food/mobile/laundry/and the occasional luxury, 33 doesn't even begin to cut it. But I knew I had to manage.
All of my plans have recently changed due to an idea my mom has had. She has now come to the conclusion that she doesn't want me to go home for christmas. She would much rather have me travel and would be willing to pay for my expenses for me to travel in Europe instead of going home. This is a curius idea since it was my step dad who asked her to do it. She is of course hurting since she hasn't seen me in forever and my stepdad thinks that she needs to learn to let go of me and let me live my life. So she is trying that by not seeing me.
Now this is tragic since I was very excited to go and see her over christmas. I really want to go to her for christmas and spend a little time with her. So now she wants me to go travelling instead and I don't know what to do. Do I go against her wishes and go and see her during christmas or do I just travel Europe without her? Yes it is a fact that most students are very excited to leave their families behind and never see them again, but I recently saw a TV show that has changed my mind. I was watching Queer as Folk (UK version) and saw how Nathan's mom was so hurt by Nathan leaving her and so I figured that is how my mom is feeling, and I suddenly felt horrible for leaving. Is it sad that I feel bad for following my own path because it hurts my mother?
So that is my current dillema, do I choose christmas with mother against her wishes, or do I go to europe and travel and by doing so not seeing my mom until June.
Inquisitively,
Aram the Garmo
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
"These are 2 of my favorite new things"
Yes, it is a twist off of "these are a few of my favourite things." So I decided instead of writing boring shit like where I went and at what time, I am deciding to write new experiences and stuff like that. And so in the past week 2 main things happened that I want the world to know. Well, mainly you, but in reality I want these recorded in history!
My first new favourite thing to do is walk the streets without looking both ways. And here is where the story begins. I was standing right outside of the Leeds City Centre Market friday at around 15:00 and we were heading to uni in order to open a bank account. I look to the left because I thought the symbols on the floor told me it was a one way street. So I see no cars coming and I take a step forward. *BANG* A bus comes and hits me from the right hand side. I never saw the bus or anything. In fact I didn't even feel the bus. All I remember is falling, feeling the floor, and thinking "oh, I should get up." And I did a dance turn and stood up without ever breaking the fall. I think I actually got up faster than the bus could fully stop. It wasn't until I was standing that I realised that I got hit by a bus. It was a very fun experience though. I had no broken body parts, and only a little bit of soarness. I was more upset about my sweatshirt getting wet.
Later on my friend told me that she thought the bus was going around 15 mph and that the scene looked like the end of "Mean Girls" where she gets hit by the bus. And we also realised that the reason I didn't feel the bus was because the bus never hit me, it hit my purse. I realised this since I noticed my lotion cap was broken and had to toss it away. My friend who was there was more in shock than I was. I personally was ready to go, but she had me sit down for a little bit. While I was sitting some random woman walked up to me and was trying to say that in the UK you can sue for getting hit by a bus. Well, here's the thing. It was MY fault for getting hit. I am not going to sue the bus company when I was the one who did it. What happens if when I sue them they let go of the guy who "didn't stop in time"? And what happens if that guy was relying on this job to feed his whole family? I am sorry, but when it is completely my fault I will not be suing anyone. So she tried to tell me to go to a hospital within 48 hours just in case. Which I thought was a good idea.
Now, of course any logical person would have gone straight to a hospital and been examined. Well, I was a stupid one I guess. Instead of going to the hospital we still went to go and open up a bank account. We got some information and then around 4 pm (1 hour after the accident) I went to a dance workshop. Yes, I paid £3 in order to dance for 2 hours right after getting hit by a bus. It was actually loads of fun. I felt a little out of it, but was dancing fairly well. The moves were all hip-hop which was not my expertise, but I tried anyway and did well, but completely failed when we showed it in groups. I forgot everything. But I had fun and thats all that counts. Afterward I went to Leeds Student Medical Practice (the hospital I'm supposed to go to) and found out they were closed. So I called the "emergency" hotline cause they were closed on saturday also. They told me to go to this hopital called "Lexicon House." They tried to give me directions, but they were so weird. They told me to go down to the Merrion Centre and go downhill. Now, the Merrion centre is a whole block long, so I don't know which downhill they were talking about, but I decided to try and figure it out. So I started walking and finally realised I was going the wrong direction. I called again and they were not helpful once more. So, instead, I called my friend and had her open google maps and find where I am and help me get to where i need to be. It took me around 1 hour to walk to the hospital when it should have taken 20 minutes.
So I got to the hospital (which is in the middle of no where) and I sat down. They finally called me in and the doctor was kurdish, aka Iraqi. But having my parents be Iraqi it made no difference to me. So he asked me what problem I had and I told him I got hit by a bus. He asked where it hurts and I told him a couple of joint pains I had and he didn't touch or anything and just wrote it down. And then he asked how I got the joint pains. I looked at him oddly and again said that I got hit by a bus. At this he looked at me weird and asked if I got hit as in *insert hand motion of fist colliding with other palm* by a bus? I told him yes. And he said that he thought I got to the hospital by bus. (Later on I found out, the closest bus station to the hospital was around half a mile away.) So he asked if it hurt a lot and I said no. And then he asked about my name which wasn't "Californian." So I told him and I swear we talked more about my name than my injuries. Then afterward he said that I was free to go. I looked at him weird and asked if I should do anything in particular just in case. He told me if I wanted I could take ibuprofen or paracitemal (sp?), but that I didn't need to. Then again I looked at him weird and asked if I should rest for the night or the next few days, you know, to let my body recuperate. He told me that I didn't need to. If I felt fine than I could go out. Oh stupid doctor, jokes are for blokes. But he was stupid, but of course I took his advise. I ended up leaving and calling a taxi. The taxi said it would take an hour. So I walked half a mile to a bus stop, took the bus into city centre and from there walked the rest of the way home. That night, as the doctor ordered, I got no rest. I went out at 11:30 and partied until 3:30 at Fruity, which is the club the union holds on Fridays. it was tons of fun!
And that was my first experience. My second experience was not as dramatic, but was a lot of fun. Last night I went to a gay club for the first time here. The drinks were each £1 and entry was only £1.50. So of course I was planning on getting wasted. We didn't start to dance until around 10:30 or so, even though we got there at around 8:30. When we started dancing I noticed not many people were full on dancing like they did in the states. There was definately more dancing than in the straight clubs, but still not enough. But there was enough that I was able to enjoy myself and dance. Now here is where the new experience comes in. As I was dancing one of my new gay friends told me we should go up and pole dance. Yes, there were 2 poles in this club. I told him I didn't know how and he said he would show me. So I went up with him. He did some basic thing, and being the dancer I am I took what he did, changed it up a bit and did something different. He looked at me all suave and we started our pole off. He did one thing, I twisted it and did another. My grand finally was when I climbed to the top and stood on top of the pole and started hip thrusting. Afterward I climbed upsidedown down the pole and flipped and landed with my ass on the railing, my legs open the hole time, still holding on to the pole. At which point I did some more hip thrusts and let my butt slide down. I help myself in position with my head and started using both arms to spank and stuff. I then slid all the way down and straddled the pole in front of me on the railing. I fondled it, got up and took the big pole again and did a little turn thing and that was about all. It was super fierce. Everyone in the club was staring and I felt good. Afterward everyone was asking if I had ever pole danced before cause I was doing good. I told them no but it felt good to know that I could pole dance really well. I can't wait for my next pole dancing experience.
So those are two of my favourite new things. There are more new things that will come up as the days go on so stay tuned as Aram's life continues to add drama to yours.
With excitement,
Aram the Garmo
My first new favourite thing to do is walk the streets without looking both ways. And here is where the story begins. I was standing right outside of the Leeds City Centre Market friday at around 15:00 and we were heading to uni in order to open a bank account. I look to the left because I thought the symbols on the floor told me it was a one way street. So I see no cars coming and I take a step forward. *BANG* A bus comes and hits me from the right hand side. I never saw the bus or anything. In fact I didn't even feel the bus. All I remember is falling, feeling the floor, and thinking "oh, I should get up." And I did a dance turn and stood up without ever breaking the fall. I think I actually got up faster than the bus could fully stop. It wasn't until I was standing that I realised that I got hit by a bus. It was a very fun experience though. I had no broken body parts, and only a little bit of soarness. I was more upset about my sweatshirt getting wet.
Later on my friend told me that she thought the bus was going around 15 mph and that the scene looked like the end of "Mean Girls" where she gets hit by the bus. And we also realised that the reason I didn't feel the bus was because the bus never hit me, it hit my purse. I realised this since I noticed my lotion cap was broken and had to toss it away. My friend who was there was more in shock than I was. I personally was ready to go, but she had me sit down for a little bit. While I was sitting some random woman walked up to me and was trying to say that in the UK you can sue for getting hit by a bus. Well, here's the thing. It was MY fault for getting hit. I am not going to sue the bus company when I was the one who did it. What happens if when I sue them they let go of the guy who "didn't stop in time"? And what happens if that guy was relying on this job to feed his whole family? I am sorry, but when it is completely my fault I will not be suing anyone. So she tried to tell me to go to a hospital within 48 hours just in case. Which I thought was a good idea.
Now, of course any logical person would have gone straight to a hospital and been examined. Well, I was a stupid one I guess. Instead of going to the hospital we still went to go and open up a bank account. We got some information and then around 4 pm (1 hour after the accident) I went to a dance workshop. Yes, I paid £3 in order to dance for 2 hours right after getting hit by a bus. It was actually loads of fun. I felt a little out of it, but was dancing fairly well. The moves were all hip-hop which was not my expertise, but I tried anyway and did well, but completely failed when we showed it in groups. I forgot everything. But I had fun and thats all that counts. Afterward I went to Leeds Student Medical Practice (the hospital I'm supposed to go to) and found out they were closed. So I called the "emergency" hotline cause they were closed on saturday also. They told me to go to this hopital called "Lexicon House." They tried to give me directions, but they were so weird. They told me to go down to the Merrion Centre and go downhill. Now, the Merrion centre is a whole block long, so I don't know which downhill they were talking about, but I decided to try and figure it out. So I started walking and finally realised I was going the wrong direction. I called again and they were not helpful once more. So, instead, I called my friend and had her open google maps and find where I am and help me get to where i need to be. It took me around 1 hour to walk to the hospital when it should have taken 20 minutes.
So I got to the hospital (which is in the middle of no where) and I sat down. They finally called me in and the doctor was kurdish, aka Iraqi. But having my parents be Iraqi it made no difference to me. So he asked me what problem I had and I told him I got hit by a bus. He asked where it hurts and I told him a couple of joint pains I had and he didn't touch or anything and just wrote it down. And then he asked how I got the joint pains. I looked at him oddly and again said that I got hit by a bus. At this he looked at me weird and asked if I got hit as in *insert hand motion of fist colliding with other palm* by a bus? I told him yes. And he said that he thought I got to the hospital by bus. (Later on I found out, the closest bus station to the hospital was around half a mile away.) So he asked if it hurt a lot and I said no. And then he asked about my name which wasn't "Californian." So I told him and I swear we talked more about my name than my injuries. Then afterward he said that I was free to go. I looked at him weird and asked if I should do anything in particular just in case. He told me if I wanted I could take ibuprofen or paracitemal (sp?), but that I didn't need to. Then again I looked at him weird and asked if I should rest for the night or the next few days, you know, to let my body recuperate. He told me that I didn't need to. If I felt fine than I could go out. Oh stupid doctor, jokes are for blokes. But he was stupid, but of course I took his advise. I ended up leaving and calling a taxi. The taxi said it would take an hour. So I walked half a mile to a bus stop, took the bus into city centre and from there walked the rest of the way home. That night, as the doctor ordered, I got no rest. I went out at 11:30 and partied until 3:30 at Fruity, which is the club the union holds on Fridays. it was tons of fun!
And that was my first experience. My second experience was not as dramatic, but was a lot of fun. Last night I went to a gay club for the first time here. The drinks were each £1 and entry was only £1.50. So of course I was planning on getting wasted. We didn't start to dance until around 10:30 or so, even though we got there at around 8:30. When we started dancing I noticed not many people were full on dancing like they did in the states. There was definately more dancing than in the straight clubs, but still not enough. But there was enough that I was able to enjoy myself and dance. Now here is where the new experience comes in. As I was dancing one of my new gay friends told me we should go up and pole dance. Yes, there were 2 poles in this club. I told him I didn't know how and he said he would show me. So I went up with him. He did some basic thing, and being the dancer I am I took what he did, changed it up a bit and did something different. He looked at me all suave and we started our pole off. He did one thing, I twisted it and did another. My grand finally was when I climbed to the top and stood on top of the pole and started hip thrusting. Afterward I climbed upsidedown down the pole and flipped and landed with my ass on the railing, my legs open the hole time, still holding on to the pole. At which point I did some more hip thrusts and let my butt slide down. I help myself in position with my head and started using both arms to spank and stuff. I then slid all the way down and straddled the pole in front of me on the railing. I fondled it, got up and took the big pole again and did a little turn thing and that was about all. It was super fierce. Everyone in the club was staring and I felt good. Afterward everyone was asking if I had ever pole danced before cause I was doing good. I told them no but it felt good to know that I could pole dance really well. I can't wait for my next pole dancing experience.
So those are two of my favourite new things. There are more new things that will come up as the days go on so stay tuned as Aram's life continues to add drama to yours.
With excitement,
Aram the Garmo
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Last 2 days of Edinburgh and my travel to Leeds
Hey again. Sorry this is taking longer than I expected. Life here is dramatically crazy, but is slowly starting to settle down. Pictures will hopefully come soon. As for now I will continue where I left off, the beautifulness of Edinburgh and how I got to Leeds!
Day 2 of Edinburgh was our meeting day. Even though I was jet-lagged I woke up at around 7 am and decided to get up. Left the hotel by around 8 and then realised the study centre doesn't open until 9 am. So I walk to starbucks and order a coffee and a croissant, not realising that the hotel offers a continental breakfast. At 9 I walk to the study centre and just chilax and talk with folks and go online for a bit. Then I help them get the meeting started at around 10 am. We have a nice meeting until around 12 at which point I realise that I have no sweatshirt for the day and since it was already cold I decided I needed to buy a sweatshirt stat in order to not freeze. So I walked to Princes St. by myself since no one else wanted to go shopping and I finally found something in my size at gap. It was really cute and only £35. I mean yes, that is $70 but really everything was around the same amount. Then we met up the scottish parliament to walk to the top of the mountain. They call it Arthur's seat! It was such a fun walk to the top. It was a 4 mile climb and was amazingly fun. Everyone else was tired of walking and hated it, but I was running and dancing and having fun. We got to the top or Arthur's seat and it was AMAZING. You can see almost all of Edinburgh from there. I took a couple of panaramic pictures and I hope that they will end up looking nice. The top was really windy though. I swear the wind was around 60 mph. It was a lot of fun though cause no one moved at all and I was the only one willing to take pictures of people cause I was able to control my body to be able to handle the wind. At the end of the hike we started going down to go to a chinese buffet. I thought that this was weird. Going to a chinese buffet in the UK? But I decided it would be fun to see if there was much difference between American chinese food and British chinese food. We got there and it was actually pretty good. We again didn't have to pay for it so it tasted better but it was still pretty good. They didn't have too many vegetarian options, but it was still enough to survive. That night we decided we were going to go clubbing. Apparently there was a fun club that was going to play live music. So later that night a few of us went to the club. The drinks were very pricey compared to America. It was £3 for a vodka redbull. Odly though it was only £2 for 2 shots of vodka. So I got a vodka redbull and 2 shots of vodka and was ready to dance. No one was dancing though. So we, being the crazy Californians as we are, decided to go ahead and dance ourselves. It was alright. The music was hard to dance to cause it was rock music, but we somehow managed to do it. And after we started dancing, it seemed like everyone else was dancing also, which is a good sight to see. At around 1 am the band finally showed up and started playing. They were not particularly good, but they had good sound. After they stopped playing we went home and went to bed.
The next day was much more lax. I got up late and headed down for the complimentary breakfast where I ended up seeing a few EAP students. We chatted and decided to head to the study centre again. At this point I went there in order check email and a couple of other details that needed to be worked out before I went to Leeds the following day. After a few hours of this we went shopping and we all bought cell phones at the carphonewarehouse which is a nice store that has many pay-as-you-go options. At this point we were made to go on a tour to Edinburgh Castle. I personally wouldn't have paid to go there, but it was still a fun time to walk in the castle and see the grounds. Afterward we went out and got italian food and then set out to our Ghost and Ghouls tour. The tour was at 9 at night and was an ok tour. The guy was from Leeds and seemed to enjoy his job, but there was nothing really to creepy persay. It was fun to hear some of the stories, but eh, again I wouldn't have paid for it. The last part was in an underground cavern which was actually pretty cool. He kep trying to scare us, but it never really worked. After this I just went home and slept, cause I had to be up at 4 in the morning cause our train left at 6. So I went home and slept, it was midnight.
Finally it was saturday, 15th of September and it was time to wake up at 4 in the morning in order to get ready. We decided to meet downstairs at 5 in order to be good to go. I got downstairs at around 4:45 and I called home to let them know what I was up to and such. Finally at 5 everyone came downstairs and we called a taxi and took it to Wavereley station. We got there about an hour before our bus came, but we just sat and got our tickets. We were all hungry and exhausted from the previous night out. Finally at 6 the bus came and we loaded and got on. We took the bus to Newcastle. The drive was very beautiful, but I was so tired I slept the whole way. I think most people did. At newcastle it took us only 5-10 min to find our train and board. We took up almost the whole luggage area which was fun, and we each had our seats next to other people. I sat and read during this trip and made a list of everything I needed to do when I got to Leeds. Finally we hit York and breezed into the next train to Leeds. We were worried because our ticket said we only had 8 minutes to catch the train at york, but we found out that the train from York to Leeds was actually a small company that did a train every 20 min and that we can catch any of the trains. So we waited like 15 min and got on the next train. It was a short train ride to Leeds (only 30 min) at which point we unloaded and met up with the meet and greet service which took me to Clarence Dock. I was the first person in my flat to be there.
Now that I am at Clarence dock I will stop. I am super hungry and must go make myself food. I hope to get this week online soon and hopefully with pictures. Eventually though this will be converted into a private journal, or be very exclusive on the details given. So that is all, I hope you all have fun and chat then.
With love and hunger in his belly,
Aram the Garmo
Day 2 of Edinburgh was our meeting day. Even though I was jet-lagged I woke up at around 7 am and decided to get up. Left the hotel by around 8 and then realised the study centre doesn't open until 9 am. So I walk to starbucks and order a coffee and a croissant, not realising that the hotel offers a continental breakfast. At 9 I walk to the study centre and just chilax and talk with folks and go online for a bit. Then I help them get the meeting started at around 10 am. We have a nice meeting until around 12 at which point I realise that I have no sweatshirt for the day and since it was already cold I decided I needed to buy a sweatshirt stat in order to not freeze. So I walked to Princes St. by myself since no one else wanted to go shopping and I finally found something in my size at gap. It was really cute and only £35. I mean yes, that is $70 but really everything was around the same amount. Then we met up the scottish parliament to walk to the top of the mountain. They call it Arthur's seat! It was such a fun walk to the top. It was a 4 mile climb and was amazingly fun. Everyone else was tired of walking and hated it, but I was running and dancing and having fun. We got to the top or Arthur's seat and it was AMAZING. You can see almost all of Edinburgh from there. I took a couple of panaramic pictures and I hope that they will end up looking nice. The top was really windy though. I swear the wind was around 60 mph. It was a lot of fun though cause no one moved at all and I was the only one willing to take pictures of people cause I was able to control my body to be able to handle the wind. At the end of the hike we started going down to go to a chinese buffet. I thought that this was weird. Going to a chinese buffet in the UK? But I decided it would be fun to see if there was much difference between American chinese food and British chinese food. We got there and it was actually pretty good. We again didn't have to pay for it so it tasted better but it was still pretty good. They didn't have too many vegetarian options, but it was still enough to survive. That night we decided we were going to go clubbing. Apparently there was a fun club that was going to play live music. So later that night a few of us went to the club. The drinks were very pricey compared to America. It was £3 for a vodka redbull. Odly though it was only £2 for 2 shots of vodka. So I got a vodka redbull and 2 shots of vodka and was ready to dance. No one was dancing though. So we, being the crazy Californians as we are, decided to go ahead and dance ourselves. It was alright. The music was hard to dance to cause it was rock music, but we somehow managed to do it. And after we started dancing, it seemed like everyone else was dancing also, which is a good sight to see. At around 1 am the band finally showed up and started playing. They were not particularly good, but they had good sound. After they stopped playing we went home and went to bed.
The next day was much more lax. I got up late and headed down for the complimentary breakfast where I ended up seeing a few EAP students. We chatted and decided to head to the study centre again. At this point I went there in order check email and a couple of other details that needed to be worked out before I went to Leeds the following day. After a few hours of this we went shopping and we all bought cell phones at the carphonewarehouse which is a nice store that has many pay-as-you-go options. At this point we were made to go on a tour to Edinburgh Castle. I personally wouldn't have paid to go there, but it was still a fun time to walk in the castle and see the grounds. Afterward we went out and got italian food and then set out to our Ghost and Ghouls tour. The tour was at 9 at night and was an ok tour. The guy was from Leeds and seemed to enjoy his job, but there was nothing really to creepy persay. It was fun to hear some of the stories, but eh, again I wouldn't have paid for it. The last part was in an underground cavern which was actually pretty cool. He kep trying to scare us, but it never really worked. After this I just went home and slept, cause I had to be up at 4 in the morning cause our train left at 6. So I went home and slept, it was midnight.
Finally it was saturday, 15th of September and it was time to wake up at 4 in the morning in order to get ready. We decided to meet downstairs at 5 in order to be good to go. I got downstairs at around 4:45 and I called home to let them know what I was up to and such. Finally at 5 everyone came downstairs and we called a taxi and took it to Wavereley station. We got there about an hour before our bus came, but we just sat and got our tickets. We were all hungry and exhausted from the previous night out. Finally at 6 the bus came and we loaded and got on. We took the bus to Newcastle. The drive was very beautiful, but I was so tired I slept the whole way. I think most people did. At newcastle it took us only 5-10 min to find our train and board. We took up almost the whole luggage area which was fun, and we each had our seats next to other people. I sat and read during this trip and made a list of everything I needed to do when I got to Leeds. Finally we hit York and breezed into the next train to Leeds. We were worried because our ticket said we only had 8 minutes to catch the train at york, but we found out that the train from York to Leeds was actually a small company that did a train every 20 min and that we can catch any of the trains. So we waited like 15 min and got on the next train. It was a short train ride to Leeds (only 30 min) at which point we unloaded and met up with the meet and greet service which took me to Clarence Dock. I was the first person in my flat to be there.
Now that I am at Clarence dock I will stop. I am super hungry and must go make myself food. I hope to get this week online soon and hopefully with pictures. Eventually though this will be converted into a private journal, or be very exclusive on the details given. So that is all, I hope you all have fun and chat then.
With love and hunger in his belly,
Aram the Garmo
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Edinburgh: Travel/Day 1
Hello again world, I am back! So no photos yet, but they should be uploaded once I unload myself in Leeds. For now I will just explain everything that is happening with the travel and my experience in Edinburgh!
My travels were amazingly simple. I took a plane from LAX to SFO then from SFO to London Heathrow. I was flying United, which I highly unrecommend. Never use united if you can stand it. Talk about 9 hours on a plane, and they don't even have decent music. They don't even give you movies to watch. So, basically, if you want to not be bored the whole trip, you bring your own entertainment. I assumed I wouldn't need entertainment though cause I thought I would sleep on the plane. In fact I relied on that since I woke up at 7pm on 10 Sept CA time and left SFO at around 1 pm 11 Sept CA time. So I assumed I would sleep a few winks on the flight. Not true though. I couldn't even sleep. Near the end of the trip I slept around 10 minutes or so before the freaking flight attendant came and woke me up in order to give me breakfast! Stupid waitor, if I am asleep, leave me asleep! But, oh well. I got to London and had to stand through immigration... which is HELL! Talk about standing in queue for an hour in order to just enter the country. Once I got up there it was fairly quick to go to baggage and off to the London Tube. The tube was fun also. I heard some new interesting words like foof. It was used in the following contest "I didn't want to foof around with my emails." Now I have this urge to use that word. I don't even know why. I also heard them use the word goodo! Now that is a fun time. And they used the phrase "speak then" it reminded me of GJ and home. At the end of the tube journey I then proceeded to go to the train station in order to take my train to Edinburgh. At this point I ordered my first food item from the UK! I bought a sandwhich. It was not very good, but it was much better than the US food. At this point I took the train up. The train was funny because they booked my seat to 2 different people and there was no room for my luggage... so I had to sit on my luggage basically, and the other person just sat next to me since the person who reserved the seat next to me never showed up. I felt sorry for the girl who sat near me though because by this point in my journey I was smelly due to BO since I had been running and carrying heavy stuff and hadn't showered in over a day! So once I got to Edinburgh I took a taxi to my hotel and checked in and took a shower. And that is how I got to Edinburgh!
Now time for Edinburgh. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city. I may just move here instead of London when I am done. Once we got here we walked to a meadow and hung out for a little and then went to a restauraunt called Monster Mash. The food was pretty good, but I was able to order my first alcoholic beverage which was fun. I ordered a heineken! The beer here is soooo much better. So that night we all went to a pub called the black bull and just hung out trying to beat jet lag. During this time I watched some football and had another pint and a half. So by the end of the night I was still sober but content :). By 9 at night we couldn't stand it any longer and meandered our way back to the hotel. At around 10 at night I crashed.
And that was 12 Sept! I will talk more on 13 Sept later, but for now I must hang out and meet more people so I'm out!
Pleasantly not completely sober :-P
Aram the Garmo
My travels were amazingly simple. I took a plane from LAX to SFO then from SFO to London Heathrow. I was flying United, which I highly unrecommend. Never use united if you can stand it. Talk about 9 hours on a plane, and they don't even have decent music. They don't even give you movies to watch. So, basically, if you want to not be bored the whole trip, you bring your own entertainment. I assumed I wouldn't need entertainment though cause I thought I would sleep on the plane. In fact I relied on that since I woke up at 7pm on 10 Sept CA time and left SFO at around 1 pm 11 Sept CA time. So I assumed I would sleep a few winks on the flight. Not true though. I couldn't even sleep. Near the end of the trip I slept around 10 minutes or so before the freaking flight attendant came and woke me up in order to give me breakfast! Stupid waitor, if I am asleep, leave me asleep! But, oh well. I got to London and had to stand through immigration... which is HELL! Talk about standing in queue for an hour in order to just enter the country. Once I got up there it was fairly quick to go to baggage and off to the London Tube. The tube was fun also. I heard some new interesting words like foof. It was used in the following contest "I didn't want to foof around with my emails." Now I have this urge to use that word. I don't even know why. I also heard them use the word goodo! Now that is a fun time. And they used the phrase "speak then" it reminded me of GJ and home. At the end of the tube journey I then proceeded to go to the train station in order to take my train to Edinburgh. At this point I ordered my first food item from the UK! I bought a sandwhich. It was not very good, but it was much better than the US food. At this point I took the train up. The train was funny because they booked my seat to 2 different people and there was no room for my luggage... so I had to sit on my luggage basically, and the other person just sat next to me since the person who reserved the seat next to me never showed up. I felt sorry for the girl who sat near me though because by this point in my journey I was smelly due to BO since I had been running and carrying heavy stuff and hadn't showered in over a day! So once I got to Edinburgh I took a taxi to my hotel and checked in and took a shower. And that is how I got to Edinburgh!
Now time for Edinburgh. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city. I may just move here instead of London when I am done. Once we got here we walked to a meadow and hung out for a little and then went to a restauraunt called Monster Mash. The food was pretty good, but I was able to order my first alcoholic beverage which was fun. I ordered a heineken! The beer here is soooo much better. So that night we all went to a pub called the black bull and just hung out trying to beat jet lag. During this time I watched some football and had another pint and a half. So by the end of the night I was still sober but content :). By 9 at night we couldn't stand it any longer and meandered our way back to the hotel. At around 10 at night I crashed.
And that was 12 Sept! I will talk more on 13 Sept later, but for now I must hang out and meet more people so I'm out!
Pleasantly not completely sober :-P
Aram the Garmo
1st stop - Edinburgh, Scotland!
Hello everyone! I am coming to you LIVE from EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND!!! Can you tell I am excited? I do not have much time since I am on a public computer at the Edinburgh Uni, UC Study Centre. So I just wanted to let you know pictures and details are coming soon. So far I will mention that this place is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking of traveling to the UK or even Europe. So that is all the time I have, and I will talk with you shortly!
With great enjoyment,
Aram the Garmo
With great enjoyment,
Aram the Garmo
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
T minus 8.5 hours
Hello once again! Only 8 and a half hours remain until I leave California, friends, and family and start my adventures in England!!! I have come up with a nice strategy plan to make sure I get minimal jet lag when I land in England. My basic plan? That's simple! Just stay awake until 10 am which is when my plane leaves LAX to San Fran. At San Fran we switch planes. On the plane to London, I plan on taking a nice long 8 hour nap. This sleeping time should coincide nicely with the time in England. By leaving San Fran at around 12ish that means I would be in the air around 8pm UK time. By sleeping around 8 hours in the air, I would wake up around 4 am UK time. Although this may sound early, it is much easier to wake up at 4 in the morning and catch up on sleep, rather than stay awake for almost 2 days straight! Which explains why I am up so late at night. I must hold ground for another 4 hours. At 5:30 am I plan on taking a shower, at which point at 6 am I will wake up my dad. I will finish packing and we leave the house at 6:30 getting to the ariport in an hour and leaving 2.5 hours until my plane departs. Those last couple hours will be difficult, but I'll find someway to handle.
In the meantime, I have a duty to accomplish much in these next 4 hours and so since my gaming system (PS2) is not working, I thought I would write a blog about my last week with my dad. It was a normal father experience and I must say I came to some conclusions about my father which make me get even angrier, but more on that later. First, let us first begin from the end of last post... Thursday
So at the end of Thursday, around 10 am, my father decided that since my brother was so hurt and anguished with pain for having to leave me and not see me for a year, that my father and I would drive all the way to phoenix to see my brother again for the weekend. I almost wanted to shoot my father, and for 2 totally seperate reasons.
1) I had been travelling almost non-stop for 2 weeks in cars, in planes, and everything and I just wanted to rest. I did not feel like being in a car, stuck with my dad, for 6 hours, absolutely bored out of my mind, when instead I could be sleeping, resting, playing games, and other things that would allow me to relax. I guess I should mention that I really do not like cars at all, and I hate driving in them long distances, and I hate driving them long distances even more. So I was really really not up for driving anywhere anymore. I had just landed in LA, and I planned to stay. So this problem was easily fixed by being able to convince my dad to have my brother fly out here instead. Sure it cost my dad $250 to fly him out roundtrip, but that is the expense my dad was willing to pay apparently.
2) The next reason I didn't want to see my brother again was due to the pain it would cause. It was hard enough leaving my family behind in Arizona, it had caused enough trauma, but now my dad had the gaul to want my brother and I to experience the pain all over again. I don't think he realized that saying goodbye once is difficult, but saying goodbye more than once is unbearable. But of course, even with me trying to explain to my dad that this would cause more pain than healing, he refused to listen to a word I said and thought it best to allow my brother to come over. Apparently my dad was only thinking of himself and not the well-being of his two children, which again shows how horrible of a human my dad is, but more on that later.
So we had my brother come up on friday. Almost directly from picking him up from the airport we went and saw a movie. "Stardust" was a very good movie. I do admit it was very cheesy near the end, but the whole gay subplot in the movie just made it so good. It allowed my imagination to soar. And with all the reading I have been doing the past couple of days has made it even better. So we went and saw that and then of course went to the bookstore and such. Saturday was filled with almost nothing as we sat at work all day and at night all we did was go to the mall for no particular reason. Sunday was the most productive day of all. Firstly we went golfing, since my brother and dad for some reason now love to golf. I find golf particularly dry and not very fun. I am not a golf player and don't really enjoy it. I find it a rich person's sport, and since I don't want to be rich it repels me. But of course my brother and dad who dream of riches nonstop love the sport of golf and so they sat and hit some balls. They tried to get me to hit some, but I had to force and insist that I didn't want to. It's like they were trying to force me to be just like them, golf players... yuck. At the end of the golf playing we went to the Glendale Galleria to look for watches. I found a nice Diesal watch which we bought for $150 and my brother found a nice Swatch watch for $140 and my dad paid for both of them and it made life good. Then of course Sunday night my brother left for Phoenix again, and again I was filled with pain. Of course, my dad is again pretty stupid with things. My brothers plain was supposed to leave at 7:45 but ended up getting delayed until 10pm. My dad decided it would be a good idea to drop by YET AGAIN and see my brother before he left. So basically my brother came out of the terminal to say hi for an hour or so. At this point I was angry at my father for not realizing how completely stupid he was being and for not listening to me. My brother should have stayed inside in order to figure out what was happening to his delayed plane and to see if he can get on an earlier one. Well, of course my brother didn't try and get on an earlier one, and so I had to go and talk with the people myself in order to get him a flight at 9pm so that he can get home. It seemed my brother and dad wanted him to just spend the night and take the 7 am flight out of burbank even though my brother has school at 7:30 the next morning. Does that make sense to anyone? So that was thankfully fixed.
Of course my brothers visit was not the only thing that occured this past week. Yesterday I had the enjoyment to be able to go and visit my Aunt Armen and Maggie Nene. I went there for lunch and we sat and talked the whole time. I must say it was the most fun I had all week. We just sat and had a cup of tea and it was like good old times. I must say I enjoy my mom's side of the family much more than my dad's side of the family. My aunt gave me some names of people she would like me to try and find while I am over in England. I don't know how I will find them, but of course I will try and look for them for her.
So a couple of things that happened at my father's work. Well, it just so happens that when I get to my father's place I don't really ever relieve myself sexually due to the fact that I am always around my father. This makes it difficult to look at gay porn/read gay porn/even just go to the bathroom and wank off. And so for almost a whole week I found myself sexually extremeley frustrated. I was checking out the ugliest men in the world and was so horny at that moment I didn't care. I think I was going through heat or something. But the point of this is that my dad has a worker named Eddie who is decently attractive. I mean he is not completely attractive, but his personality makes up for it. Oh, and did I mention he is utterly straight too, and metro? So anyway, of course every time I saw him I was almost instantly turned on. Mind you no one over there knows I am gay so I had to tone down the whole thing. Imagine being stuck in a car with someone you just want to jump for 10 minutes when it's just the two of you, and all he sits and talks about is the girl he went out with the other day and how he thinks she has a sexy voice! Let's just say, it is hard to live sex free for this long. I need to find myself a mate, and quick.
Another thing I would like to mention is the ordeal of my father. As time progresses I grow more and more sick and tired of my dad. I always think 'oh this time he will be better,' but he never is. Some things to note about my father.
1) He is extremely sexist - I had noted to him that he has no women working in the office and I asked him if there was any particular reason he never hired a women. He flat out said that women were stupid and could not do the jobs he needed. At that point I was angry and told him that he should hire a women by the time I come back from England. He said that he would hire a women and that she would stay in his office naked the whole time. I mean how disgusting is that. Is that the only way that he thinks of women? An object to play with and do as you please. He is so ridiculously stupid in that regards it makes no sense to me. And then later on that day after I mentioned a story about the macy's attendants who were helping me try and adjust my watch for my wrist, and all three that were helping me were women and I was describing how we couldn't get it off, and my father has the gaul to say that this proves that women are stupid. How about NO!!! We couldn't fix the watch not because we didn't know what we were doing, but because the manufacturer didn't send us the correct supplies. It was NOT because the people helping me were women. Of course I wanted to jump and slit his throat, but I couldn't.
2) He is impulsive - My father likes to make a decision in split seconds without thinking about the consequences or whether or not it is the best thing to do at the moment. An example of this was my brother coming to visit. It took my father a whole of 5 minutes to decide that he wanted to see my brother in order to help him with his problems. My father didn't sit and decide whether this plan would be good for my brother, for me, if my father could even afford this plan. Instead he just set out to do it, impulsively. He has done this in the past with buying my external harddrive. I had been saving up for an external harddrive, and when we were in radioshack and I was browsing through the external harddrives, my father bought one without even looking at any of the details and gave it to me saying that I should have what I want instead of waiting for it. He didn't think about what he was doing. He wanted the harddrive and he wanted it now. Which I guess is a good saying for how my father works, if he wants something, he wants it now. So he never thinks about anything and just does things on impulse, without any structure, and I can't handle that. I need structure in my life.
3) He only thinks about himself - Again this is shown with having my brother come down for the weekend. My dad wouldn't listen at all that my brother coming down would maybe hurt him more than help him, instead my father only thought about himself and proceeded to have my brother come down. He also does this at his job. I know that since he owns the business he must look out for profits and such in order to continue being successful and so he must look out for only himself, but there are limits. One of his employees, Gary, was working for him for a few months. Recently Gary's son ran away from him. Of course Gary was in shambles and couldn't go to work for a couple of days. Who wouldn't be that crazy when their only son just ran away from home and you have no idea where they are? So, then eventually Gary finds his son (I think he found him Sunday), and my dad decides that this would be the best time to fire Gary. He fired Gary monday. I mean this guy just went on an emotional roller coaster for the past couple of days having to deal with his lost son, and now you are firing him? Yes, it may hurt your company a tiny bit, but the least you can do is at least wait a week or two before firing him. I found that completely selfish of my dad. My dad also has this thing where he tries to get everyone to work for him. He has been trying to get my brother and I to work for him for years now. He has succeeded in almost getting my brother to work for him, but he doesn't sit and think what would be best for my brother. My brother doesn't fully want to work for my dad, but instead is only doing it cause he thinks it would be an easy job (even though it won't). My mom and I have finally convinced my brother to follow his own dream instead of following in my father's footsteps. My dad has also been trying to get me to work for him, which is funny since I have already made plans about where I will be working and all that. And he tries to sneak it in, like he will try and get me to write him a email for him using HTML and to teach him, and to do that for him, and that. So this week I gave up on him and was like, 'no, you want to write an email using HTML then go learn HTML yourself, you can't rely on me to do it for you.' So I showed him a website and let him go at it. Of course he never even looked at the site and went and did other work. Again this shows he doesn't care about other people, only himself. He doesn't care that I want to be a math teacher in High School, he only knows that since I'm smart and good in math I can help him to make his company stronger and better.
And although there is more to talk about my dad and how horrible of a human he is, I figure that is enough about my father for one day. I have written for about an hour on here so I
will stop writing so much. I am going to continue packing up my stuff and maybe play some more sudoku since the game Myst is no longer working :(. If I get utterly bored, I may come on here to write a review of something or other, but who knows. As of now it is T minus 7.5 hours until liftoff of my aircraft, and I am patiently waiting for the flight to come so I can leave this hell hole called my father's house.
Loves and Kisses for probably the last time from Los Angeles,
Aram the Garmo
In the meantime, I have a duty to accomplish much in these next 4 hours and so since my gaming system (PS2) is not working, I thought I would write a blog about my last week with my dad. It was a normal father experience and I must say I came to some conclusions about my father which make me get even angrier, but more on that later. First, let us first begin from the end of last post... Thursday
So at the end of Thursday, around 10 am, my father decided that since my brother was so hurt and anguished with pain for having to leave me and not see me for a year, that my father and I would drive all the way to phoenix to see my brother again for the weekend. I almost wanted to shoot my father, and for 2 totally seperate reasons.
1) I had been travelling almost non-stop for 2 weeks in cars, in planes, and everything and I just wanted to rest. I did not feel like being in a car, stuck with my dad, for 6 hours, absolutely bored out of my mind, when instead I could be sleeping, resting, playing games, and other things that would allow me to relax. I guess I should mention that I really do not like cars at all, and I hate driving in them long distances, and I hate driving them long distances even more. So I was really really not up for driving anywhere anymore. I had just landed in LA, and I planned to stay. So this problem was easily fixed by being able to convince my dad to have my brother fly out here instead. Sure it cost my dad $250 to fly him out roundtrip, but that is the expense my dad was willing to pay apparently.
2) The next reason I didn't want to see my brother again was due to the pain it would cause. It was hard enough leaving my family behind in Arizona, it had caused enough trauma, but now my dad had the gaul to want my brother and I to experience the pain all over again. I don't think he realized that saying goodbye once is difficult, but saying goodbye more than once is unbearable. But of course, even with me trying to explain to my dad that this would cause more pain than healing, he refused to listen to a word I said and thought it best to allow my brother to come over. Apparently my dad was only thinking of himself and not the well-being of his two children, which again shows how horrible of a human my dad is, but more on that later.
So we had my brother come up on friday. Almost directly from picking him up from the airport we went and saw a movie. "Stardust" was a very good movie. I do admit it was very cheesy near the end, but the whole gay subplot in the movie just made it so good. It allowed my imagination to soar. And with all the reading I have been doing the past couple of days has made it even better. So we went and saw that and then of course went to the bookstore and such. Saturday was filled with almost nothing as we sat at work all day and at night all we did was go to the mall for no particular reason. Sunday was the most productive day of all. Firstly we went golfing, since my brother and dad for some reason now love to golf. I find golf particularly dry and not very fun. I am not a golf player and don't really enjoy it. I find it a rich person's sport, and since I don't want to be rich it repels me. But of course my brother and dad who dream of riches nonstop love the sport of golf and so they sat and hit some balls. They tried to get me to hit some, but I had to force and insist that I didn't want to. It's like they were trying to force me to be just like them, golf players... yuck. At the end of the golf playing we went to the Glendale Galleria to look for watches. I found a nice Diesal watch which we bought for $150 and my brother found a nice Swatch watch for $140 and my dad paid for both of them and it made life good. Then of course Sunday night my brother left for Phoenix again, and again I was filled with pain. Of course, my dad is again pretty stupid with things. My brothers plain was supposed to leave at 7:45 but ended up getting delayed until 10pm. My dad decided it would be a good idea to drop by YET AGAIN and see my brother before he left. So basically my brother came out of the terminal to say hi for an hour or so. At this point I was angry at my father for not realizing how completely stupid he was being and for not listening to me. My brother should have stayed inside in order to figure out what was happening to his delayed plane and to see if he can get on an earlier one. Well, of course my brother didn't try and get on an earlier one, and so I had to go and talk with the people myself in order to get him a flight at 9pm so that he can get home. It seemed my brother and dad wanted him to just spend the night and take the 7 am flight out of burbank even though my brother has school at 7:30 the next morning. Does that make sense to anyone? So that was thankfully fixed.
Of course my brothers visit was not the only thing that occured this past week. Yesterday I had the enjoyment to be able to go and visit my Aunt Armen and Maggie Nene. I went there for lunch and we sat and talked the whole time. I must say it was the most fun I had all week. We just sat and had a cup of tea and it was like good old times. I must say I enjoy my mom's side of the family much more than my dad's side of the family. My aunt gave me some names of people she would like me to try and find while I am over in England. I don't know how I will find them, but of course I will try and look for them for her.
So a couple of things that happened at my father's work. Well, it just so happens that when I get to my father's place I don't really ever relieve myself sexually due to the fact that I am always around my father. This makes it difficult to look at gay porn/read gay porn/even just go to the bathroom and wank off. And so for almost a whole week I found myself sexually extremeley frustrated. I was checking out the ugliest men in the world and was so horny at that moment I didn't care. I think I was going through heat or something. But the point of this is that my dad has a worker named Eddie who is decently attractive. I mean he is not completely attractive, but his personality makes up for it. Oh, and did I mention he is utterly straight too, and metro? So anyway, of course every time I saw him I was almost instantly turned on. Mind you no one over there knows I am gay so I had to tone down the whole thing. Imagine being stuck in a car with someone you just want to jump for 10 minutes when it's just the two of you, and all he sits and talks about is the girl he went out with the other day and how he thinks she has a sexy voice! Let's just say, it is hard to live sex free for this long. I need to find myself a mate, and quick.
Another thing I would like to mention is the ordeal of my father. As time progresses I grow more and more sick and tired of my dad. I always think 'oh this time he will be better,' but he never is. Some things to note about my father.
1) He is extremely sexist - I had noted to him that he has no women working in the office and I asked him if there was any particular reason he never hired a women. He flat out said that women were stupid and could not do the jobs he needed. At that point I was angry and told him that he should hire a women by the time I come back from England. He said that he would hire a women and that she would stay in his office naked the whole time. I mean how disgusting is that. Is that the only way that he thinks of women? An object to play with and do as you please. He is so ridiculously stupid in that regards it makes no sense to me. And then later on that day after I mentioned a story about the macy's attendants who were helping me try and adjust my watch for my wrist, and all three that were helping me were women and I was describing how we couldn't get it off, and my father has the gaul to say that this proves that women are stupid. How about NO!!! We couldn't fix the watch not because we didn't know what we were doing, but because the manufacturer didn't send us the correct supplies. It was NOT because the people helping me were women. Of course I wanted to jump and slit his throat, but I couldn't.
2) He is impulsive - My father likes to make a decision in split seconds without thinking about the consequences or whether or not it is the best thing to do at the moment. An example of this was my brother coming to visit. It took my father a whole of 5 minutes to decide that he wanted to see my brother in order to help him with his problems. My father didn't sit and decide whether this plan would be good for my brother, for me, if my father could even afford this plan. Instead he just set out to do it, impulsively. He has done this in the past with buying my external harddrive. I had been saving up for an external harddrive, and when we were in radioshack and I was browsing through the external harddrives, my father bought one without even looking at any of the details and gave it to me saying that I should have what I want instead of waiting for it. He didn't think about what he was doing. He wanted the harddrive and he wanted it now. Which I guess is a good saying for how my father works, if he wants something, he wants it now. So he never thinks about anything and just does things on impulse, without any structure, and I can't handle that. I need structure in my life.
3) He only thinks about himself - Again this is shown with having my brother come down for the weekend. My dad wouldn't listen at all that my brother coming down would maybe hurt him more than help him, instead my father only thought about himself and proceeded to have my brother come down. He also does this at his job. I know that since he owns the business he must look out for profits and such in order to continue being successful and so he must look out for only himself, but there are limits. One of his employees, Gary, was working for him for a few months. Recently Gary's son ran away from him. Of course Gary was in shambles and couldn't go to work for a couple of days. Who wouldn't be that crazy when their only son just ran away from home and you have no idea where they are? So, then eventually Gary finds his son (I think he found him Sunday), and my dad decides that this would be the best time to fire Gary. He fired Gary monday. I mean this guy just went on an emotional roller coaster for the past couple of days having to deal with his lost son, and now you are firing him? Yes, it may hurt your company a tiny bit, but the least you can do is at least wait a week or two before firing him. I found that completely selfish of my dad. My dad also has this thing where he tries to get everyone to work for him. He has been trying to get my brother and I to work for him for years now. He has succeeded in almost getting my brother to work for him, but he doesn't sit and think what would be best for my brother. My brother doesn't fully want to work for my dad, but instead is only doing it cause he thinks it would be an easy job (even though it won't). My mom and I have finally convinced my brother to follow his own dream instead of following in my father's footsteps. My dad has also been trying to get me to work for him, which is funny since I have already made plans about where I will be working and all that. And he tries to sneak it in, like he will try and get me to write him a email for him using HTML and to teach him, and to do that for him, and that. So this week I gave up on him and was like, 'no, you want to write an email using HTML then go learn HTML yourself, you can't rely on me to do it for you.' So I showed him a website and let him go at it. Of course he never even looked at the site and went and did other work. Again this shows he doesn't care about other people, only himself. He doesn't care that I want to be a math teacher in High School, he only knows that since I'm smart and good in math I can help him to make his company stronger and better.
And although there is more to talk about my dad and how horrible of a human he is, I figure that is enough about my father for one day. I have written for about an hour on here so I
will stop writing so much. I am going to continue packing up my stuff and maybe play some more sudoku since the game Myst is no longer working :(. If I get utterly bored, I may come on here to write a review of something or other, but who knows. As of now it is T minus 7.5 hours until liftoff of my aircraft, and I am patiently waiting for the flight to come so I can leave this hell hole called my father's house.
Loves and Kisses for probably the last time from Los Angeles,
Aram the Garmo
Thursday, September 6, 2007
6 Days until departure
Hello once again!
This time I am writing to you from Los Angeles, CA! I just landed yesterday at around 1:30pm and was picked up by my father. I am spending all of the coming up week with him before my departure to London!
The hardest part of yesterday though was the leaving. I was leaving my family for a whole year to a far off place. You would think my family would get used to not seeing me, noting that I see them only around 2 or 3 times a year currently, but I imagine this time since it's only once in a year it is taking a toll on them. At the airport my mom started crying while she was hugging me. It was a very emotional moment because I knew she would truly miss me. She needed me as her anchor. I was the one she would turn to for advice and help and anything else that she may need. I was always just one phone call away, but now we don't even have that. While abroad the only way she can talk with me is through yahoo instant messenger or through email. She wants me to call her everyday, but I think it would be best to make it about once a week so that she gets used to the idea that her son is away. Of course I won't start straight away with that but will gradually ease into it. I don't want to hurt her feelings anymore than they already are.
My brother seemed to be really hurt also. While I was at the bookstore yesterday he called my dad and wanted to talk with me and was bawling due to the fact that I had left. He truly missed me which was a weird concept considering most of the time while I was there we hardly talked and even got into a couple of arguments. He is an odd character, but I hope he will one day become more than that.
So to change topics entirely, yesterday at my Dad's house I started to play Myst III: The exile, and it is a fun game. It is very challenging and forces you to use your brain. I am still stuck using the hints occasionally, but only sometimes. I am getting better. The premise of the game is that Atrus, the main person, writes Ages. These ages are such that they actually exist, so in essence he creates miny planets. The way he creates them is by writing a book about them. Once the book is completed you just touch the inside of the book and you can transport yourself into that age. Well the story plot is that the evil guy (can't remember his name) comes and steals one of the more important ages and so Atrus sort of has you go after the bad guy in order to recover the book. The 1st problem is getting into a certain room. You have to solve complicated puzzles with drawings that are hard to distinguish (which is why I used the hint book because I couldn't see what the monitor was showing, I needed a clearer picture). Once you get into the room the bad guy disappears and basically says you have to complete 3 different ages in order to find him in a 4th age. So the premise is that you have to go to each of the ages and solve tasks in order to get the guy his book back.
So yesterday I played and was finally able to get to the room in J'annin (the age you start in) and finally learned how to get into the other ages. I first tried Amaterea which was not that bad of an age. It took me a few tries to understand what I needed to do, but once I got the concept it was pretty easy. Only one puzzle was difficult to solve in which I need help on (and only minorly). So I finished one age, and only 2 more to go. My hope is to finish the game before I leave here! That should be an exciting goal.
Also yesterday my dad and I went to Barnes and Nobles. He wanted somewhere to sit and work on his computer and I wanted a new book. Oh, as a future notice. The book called "The Illuminatus!" by Robert Shea... horrible book. It is a fun read, but also very difficult. I swear the person who wrote it was on some kind of drug because the scenese change so fast. Like within one page sometimes you will go to 4 or 5 different settings with different people talking about totally seperate things (like there are 6 ro 7 plots going on and you have to keep track of all of them). So, it is basically way to confusing. So I wanted another book. After looking at the science fiction section for a while I chose "Ender's game" by Card. I had noted that a lot of people say that this book is a good book and so I decided to sit and read. After reading about 6 chapters I fell in love. The author writes with such grace that you just can't put the book down. You are drawn so quickly to the characters that you have no option but to keep going on with the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I hope to finish that book by tonight so I can maybe get another one!
Well, I am at my dad's work and it is getting busy so I should go and start reading my book. Things to do for me today: Go to the bank to deposit any cash I have on me, find Samantha's missing cooking stuff, and find my European money bag.
Tons of love from Los Angeles,
Aram the Garmo
This time I am writing to you from Los Angeles, CA! I just landed yesterday at around 1:30pm and was picked up by my father. I am spending all of the coming up week with him before my departure to London!
The hardest part of yesterday though was the leaving. I was leaving my family for a whole year to a far off place. You would think my family would get used to not seeing me, noting that I see them only around 2 or 3 times a year currently, but I imagine this time since it's only once in a year it is taking a toll on them. At the airport my mom started crying while she was hugging me. It was a very emotional moment because I knew she would truly miss me. She needed me as her anchor. I was the one she would turn to for advice and help and anything else that she may need. I was always just one phone call away, but now we don't even have that. While abroad the only way she can talk with me is through yahoo instant messenger or through email. She wants me to call her everyday, but I think it would be best to make it about once a week so that she gets used to the idea that her son is away. Of course I won't start straight away with that but will gradually ease into it. I don't want to hurt her feelings anymore than they already are.
My brother seemed to be really hurt also. While I was at the bookstore yesterday he called my dad and wanted to talk with me and was bawling due to the fact that I had left. He truly missed me which was a weird concept considering most of the time while I was there we hardly talked and even got into a couple of arguments. He is an odd character, but I hope he will one day become more than that.
So to change topics entirely, yesterday at my Dad's house I started to play Myst III: The exile, and it is a fun game. It is very challenging and forces you to use your brain. I am still stuck using the hints occasionally, but only sometimes. I am getting better. The premise of the game is that Atrus, the main person, writes Ages. These ages are such that they actually exist, so in essence he creates miny planets. The way he creates them is by writing a book about them. Once the book is completed you just touch the inside of the book and you can transport yourself into that age. Well the story plot is that the evil guy (can't remember his name) comes and steals one of the more important ages and so Atrus sort of has you go after the bad guy in order to recover the book. The 1st problem is getting into a certain room. You have to solve complicated puzzles with drawings that are hard to distinguish (which is why I used the hint book because I couldn't see what the monitor was showing, I needed a clearer picture). Once you get into the room the bad guy disappears and basically says you have to complete 3 different ages in order to find him in a 4th age. So the premise is that you have to go to each of the ages and solve tasks in order to get the guy his book back.
So yesterday I played and was finally able to get to the room in J'annin (the age you start in) and finally learned how to get into the other ages. I first tried Amaterea which was not that bad of an age. It took me a few tries to understand what I needed to do, but once I got the concept it was pretty easy. Only one puzzle was difficult to solve in which I need help on (and only minorly). So I finished one age, and only 2 more to go. My hope is to finish the game before I leave here! That should be an exciting goal.
Also yesterday my dad and I went to Barnes and Nobles. He wanted somewhere to sit and work on his computer and I wanted a new book. Oh, as a future notice. The book called "The Illuminatus!" by Robert Shea... horrible book. It is a fun read, but also very difficult. I swear the person who wrote it was on some kind of drug because the scenese change so fast. Like within one page sometimes you will go to 4 or 5 different settings with different people talking about totally seperate things (like there are 6 ro 7 plots going on and you have to keep track of all of them). So, it is basically way to confusing. So I wanted another book. After looking at the science fiction section for a while I chose "Ender's game" by Card. I had noted that a lot of people say that this book is a good book and so I decided to sit and read. After reading about 6 chapters I fell in love. The author writes with such grace that you just can't put the book down. You are drawn so quickly to the characters that you have no option but to keep going on with the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I hope to finish that book by tonight so I can maybe get another one!
Well, I am at my dad's work and it is getting busy so I should go and start reading my book. Things to do for me today: Go to the bank to deposit any cash I have on me, find Samantha's missing cooking stuff, and find my European money bag.
Tons of love from Los Angeles,
Aram the Garmo
Monday, September 3, 2007
9 days until departure
So I am still currently in Phoenix, Arizona and I am trying to decide what I want this blog to become. I figure it will contain two main components.
1) My travelings and the places I visit and my ideas of them
2) My philosophical ideas or desires that I so choose to post
Currently, I am 9 days away from leaving the US for a very long period of time. So far in Phoenix I have been working on my scrap book which is slowly coming along and watching some TV shows. The scrap book is a weird creation. It takes more time than I anticipated and I hope I will be able to finish it by Wednesday. The TV shows are mainly history channel or LOGO so that I can catch up on the times a little.
Today I was taking care of my step uncles grandson (I don't know what that makes him), and he is 5 years old, and he is so adorable. I am slowly falling in love with little children. I think I may be ready to have a child. It is sort of weird considering this since I am only 20 years of age, but I am ready for a child. I know it will be a while until I can adopt one, but it seems like forever. Children are so cute and so much fun, I don't know how anyone can live without one. They have so much energy and so many ideas that it is impossible to not sit and try and understand them.
But now that I have explained my main goals of this blog and talked a tiny bit of the past couple of days, I will leave. I am deadly tired from running around with Tyler (step uncle's grandson), and swimming in the pool for a few hours so I am going to head off to bed.
Current Time in Phoenix: 12:10 AM
Current Time in England: 8:10 AM
1) My travelings and the places I visit and my ideas of them
2) My philosophical ideas or desires that I so choose to post
Currently, I am 9 days away from leaving the US for a very long period of time. So far in Phoenix I have been working on my scrap book which is slowly coming along and watching some TV shows. The scrap book is a weird creation. It takes more time than I anticipated and I hope I will be able to finish it by Wednesday. The TV shows are mainly history channel or LOGO so that I can catch up on the times a little.
Today I was taking care of my step uncles grandson (I don't know what that makes him), and he is 5 years old, and he is so adorable. I am slowly falling in love with little children. I think I may be ready to have a child. It is sort of weird considering this since I am only 20 years of age, but I am ready for a child. I know it will be a while until I can adopt one, but it seems like forever. Children are so cute and so much fun, I don't know how anyone can live without one. They have so much energy and so many ideas that it is impossible to not sit and try and understand them.
But now that I have explained my main goals of this blog and talked a tiny bit of the past couple of days, I will leave. I am deadly tired from running around with Tyler (step uncle's grandson), and swimming in the pool for a few hours so I am going to head off to bed.
Current Time in Phoenix: 12:10 AM
Current Time in England: 8:10 AM
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
2 Weeks Before Departure!
Hello all and welcome to my brand new blog! I don't know how often I will update this once I reach Europe, but I hope to do it at least once a week.
Let's start off with where I currently am. As I type, I am sitting on my bed in my Mother's house in Phoenix, Arizona. Today is exactly t-minus 2 weeks until departure from the states and onto a bigger and broader future. Where I am going you may ask? Well that is a simple answer that will be revealed shortly, but first let me talk about where I will be for the next 2 weeks.
I start my plans tomorrow when I will begin my first ever scrap-book making project. I am compiling my whole college career into this scrap-book. I am also describing myself and my current ideals. This may seem crazy for a normal scrap-book which is technically supposed to hold memories, but this scrap-book is special. It will be turned into a time capsule on completion. When finished I will tie it up, and put a date on it for 20 years in the future and tuck it away safely, not to be opened until 2027, at which point I will be turning 40 and probably hit a mid life crisis.
I will work on the scrap-book for the whole week, at which point on September 5th I will be flying back to Los Angeles where I will spend the remainder of my time in the states with my father. During this last week in the states I will most likely be awkwardly bored with absolutely nothing to do, as is usually the case at my dad's house.
Then finally on September 11th I fly out of LAX and finally reach Europe, finally reunited. Now here is the main reason for this blog. I will be blogging about my time while studying abroad at Leeds University in England. I will be staying there for a whole year and hope that the trip turns out to be well worth the wait.
More information is soon to come, but unfortunately this is all for today. Stay tuned for an update as to what is happening at my mom's house, how my scrap-book is going, and more details about who I am and what I hope to do while in Europe!
With love and *kisses*,
Aram
Let's start off with where I currently am. As I type, I am sitting on my bed in my Mother's house in Phoenix, Arizona. Today is exactly t-minus 2 weeks until departure from the states and onto a bigger and broader future. Where I am going you may ask? Well that is a simple answer that will be revealed shortly, but first let me talk about where I will be for the next 2 weeks.
I start my plans tomorrow when I will begin my first ever scrap-book making project. I am compiling my whole college career into this scrap-book. I am also describing myself and my current ideals. This may seem crazy for a normal scrap-book which is technically supposed to hold memories, but this scrap-book is special. It will be turned into a time capsule on completion. When finished I will tie it up, and put a date on it for 20 years in the future and tuck it away safely, not to be opened until 2027, at which point I will be turning 40 and probably hit a mid life crisis.
I will work on the scrap-book for the whole week, at which point on September 5th I will be flying back to Los Angeles where I will spend the remainder of my time in the states with my father. During this last week in the states I will most likely be awkwardly bored with absolutely nothing to do, as is usually the case at my dad's house.
Then finally on September 11th I fly out of LAX and finally reach Europe, finally reunited. Now here is the main reason for this blog. I will be blogging about my time while studying abroad at Leeds University in England. I will be staying there for a whole year and hope that the trip turns out to be well worth the wait.
More information is soon to come, but unfortunately this is all for today. Stay tuned for an update as to what is happening at my mom's house, how my scrap-book is going, and more details about who I am and what I hope to do while in Europe!
With love and *kisses*,
Aram
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